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November 2, 2011
 
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4B Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011 Bulletin, Progressive, Record, Reporter " , " 0000isis Leg(,:l s take ()n the hc)usirzg LEGAL MUSINGS STEVE BRENNEMAN steve@school pathways• co m By now, we've all heard the term housing crisis, aka mortgage crisis, aka foreclo- sure crisis, more times than we'd care to count. The terms appear to encompass a host of problems and circumstances. If you are one of those people who, through no fault of your own, became unable to make your mortgage payment and lost your home to foreclo- sure, my sympathy goes out to you. A home is often so much more than just a roof over your head and a place to come in from the cold. It is a base of operation and an anchor in a stormy sea. Home is the sanctuary to which one may escape and from which one may exclude all others. A man's home is his castle. Trite, but nevertheless true. So while "crisis" may seem a bit over the top in describ- ing the current situation, it is indeed a•crisis to those forced to give up their homds and either downsize or, in the extreme case, begin living out of their cars. What must it be like to have to tell your children they're moving from the only home they've ever known to a shelter? There is plenty of blame to go around for the current mess. From investment bankers who ignored the reality of weak loans and peddled them to investors as solid gold, to politicians who turned a blind eye to mount- ing evidence of a looming collapse, one hardly knows where to begin. But let's not overlook the homeowners themselves. There were those who bought much more home than they could realistically afford with little or nothing down. There were also homeowners Who kept borrowing on rising home values to bankroll lifestyles far beyond their means. Clearly, many of the foreclosure wounds were self- inflicted. Of course, that does not make them any less painful. Inevitably, a situation such as this spawns all manner of lawsuits intended to deflect blame and recoup losses. One case I recall reading about awhile back involved an elder- ly woman whose husband had died and she found he,elf no longer able to pay the mort- gage on the home where she had lived for many years. At the time, the woman owed probably half of what the home was worth. Over the next few years, she refi- nanced the mortgage several times, each time increasing the size of the loan and taking cash out to help make future mortgage payments. Eventually, the size of the mortgage exceeded the value of the home and she could no longer obtain refinancing. Nor could she make the ever- increasing mortgage pay- ments. The lender foreclosed and the woman was forced to move out. She sued the various lenders on a theory of preda- tory lending practices. She alleged the lenders knew she could not make the increas- ing mortgage payments but allowed her to refinance any- way in order to eventually take away her home. Of course, one can readily see the holes in such a claim. Each lender except the last received nothing more out of the deal than the return of their investment plus interest, which interest the woman was already paying on her original mortgage. The refmancing merely replaced one lender with another. As for the final lender, since the value of the home was legs than the mortgage amount, the house would have sold in foreclosure for less than the loan amountl thereby causing that lender to lose money on the deal. (The real villain here appeared to have been the mortgage brokers, who charged hefty fees to arrange for the various refinances that never should have occurred.) The other day, I read about a case that is certainly one of the most imaginative I have seen in assessing blame for the mortgage crisis. In Maya v. Centex Corporation, the plaintiffs are homeowners who have notlost their homes to foreclosure. Nevertheless, they claim fraudulent prac- tices by various home builders and developers in selling homes topeople who were not as creditworthy as the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs' theory goes like this: They are good risks who bought homes in new developments that were well within their financial means. At the time, the defendants advertised that they were building "stable, family neigh- borhoods occupied by owners of the homes." However, soon thereafter, the defendants began marketing their homes to "unqualified buyers who posed an abnormally high risk of foreclosure" and spec- ulators who had no intention of OCCUpying the homes. Later, when the housing bubble burst, the defendants' selling practices resulted in abnormally high rates of foreclosures in the neighbor- hoods where the plaintiffs lived. This, in turn, resulted in decreases in the values of the plaintiffs' homes. The plaintiffs also alleged they paid more for their houses than they were worth because of the defendants' misrepresentations about the nature of the neighborhoods being developed. Sometimes, I am truly humbled by the ingenuity of my brethren in the legal profession. However, the federal dis- trict court was having none of it and dismissed the case. The court concluded the because none of them had sold or attempted to sell their homes. Hence, any losses due to decreased value were "conjectural." This is sortoflike saying that after an accident in which your car sustains substantial damage you cannot pursue a claim against the party who rear-ended you because you haven't tried to sell the car yet. The district court also concluded any possible over- payment for the homes by the plaintiffs was speculative and activities, in light of the overall market decline. The Ninth Circuit rever disagreeing with the distr. court on all points, and se: the case back to the distri, court for trial. This case, of course, is r emblematic of the housin{ crisis, since the plaintiffs not lose their homes, only some of the homes' value. it demonstrates the breadl of the problem. The federa government may ultimate get involved in aneffort t( ;ed, ct It t ot lid But h Ly plaintiffs did not have stand- any claimed losses could not limit the damage. God help us ing to pursue such a claim be traced to the defendants' all. / Fire chiefs host workshop The Plumas County Fire Chiefs Association will host a fire district leadership work- shop Nov. 19, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Graeagle Fire Pro- tection District. This workshop is designed to orient, educate and support fire district boards and staff who comprise fwe department leadership teams. The workshop is open to board members, fwe chiefs, ad- ministrative staff and anyone involved with fee district gov- ernance. The cost is $25 per per- son, payable to Plumas County Fire Chiefs Association. RSVP to Tom Forster, tnforster@mac.com or 836- 1086, by Nov. 11. Legal foundation topics to be covered include: special district governance; fire protection district law; conflict of interest and ethics laws; public records law; Local Agency Formation Commis- sion law and procedures; understanding federal, state and local responsibility areas; resources for fee departments; planning for cooperative, re- gional efforts; and the Plumas County Fire Chiefs Associa- tion strategic plan. Fire district governance topics to be covered include: principles of board gover- nance; board dynamics; board roles and responsibilities; staff roles and responsibilities; fire chief personnel evaluation; perceptions of organizational success; and board meetings, open meeting law. Instructor Jim Hill has conducted workshops on special district laws as as board governance dynamics throughout the sl He is a past president of Fire Districts Associatio California and the Sane County Fire Districts Assc tion. Hill has been a board m bar with the Cloverdale Protection District for the seveh years, and prior to served 11 years on the bo the Forestville Fire Protec District. He was on the st ing committee that fori REDCOM, a fire/EMS disp: joint powers authority Sonoma County, and serve its f'wst board chair. He wa so involved with the deve ment of a fwe district admi tration handbook and ha years offwe service experie BBB warns c MeqJicare scare Medicare open enrollment started recently and already scammers are capitalizing on the period with a phone scam aimed at obtaining senior citizens' banking information. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) serving Northeast Cali- fornia is urging consumers to beware of phone calls claim- ing to be from Medicare offer- ing new cards. Consumers should never give out personal informa- tion over the telephone. Medicare does not make telephone calls regarding health care coverage. Should consumers have questi about coverage, they can Medicare's toll-free ] at (800) MEDICARE (1 633-4227). If you have questi regarding the authenticit a call, Call the BBB at (! 443-6843. ell md ate. the 1 of ma cia- am- 'ire )ast :hat dof :ion eer- :led ttch in 1 as ;al- Lop- his- 40 :Ice. IS ns call ine lO0- 2ns  of 6p 3 4 6 5 3 2 5 7 1 2 4 8 9 6 3 3 Difficult 2 I 4 9 1 6 ¸ 5 7 kg Your Nose In elcthl I.I,IGEENIolelEILIsEEA c IAIIAIMIulLIITM ol I'IsIINIAINIoIsIEIcloI.! lulNIoI.III.IolsIIolKo I.IILlemoI.IEI,ILILmA IlelelNlBslYIol.lelYmmy Sudoku Solution #2331-D 91.62873 74851 32 5236497 8924651 6 7 1 9 32 4 3 5 4 1 78 6 1 8 7 3945 2 3 9 7 5168 4 6 5 8 2il 541 g 61 181 i 7 •3 I 851 2 91 I 621 4 1 371 | ACROSS 1. Donaldson or Spade 4. "The _ knees" (great) 8. Half the "Who's on First?" team 14. indian, Brave or Chief 15. Green feeling? 16. Signals from a downed flier, perhaps 17. Conquistador's treasure 18. Former Fed head Greenspan 19. Building, after demolition 20. They're checked 23. Turns inside out 24. Relative of-esque 25. Slacker's bane 28. Fiddler of legend 29. Offer lessons 32. Pouting expression 33. Chat room patrons 35. First Lady after Hillary 36. They're checked 40. _-washy 41. Makes tolerable 42. To boot 43. Belarus's capital 45. Ump's call 49. Day_ colors 50. Give the boot to 51. Like most runs, in baseball 53. They're checked 56. Play merrily 59. Not even fair 60. Actor Billy__ Williams 61. Bird on a baseball cap 62. Partner of tried 63. Cyberspace initials 64. Sweet drink Check It Out IS i8 21 m 33 4 B7 ;0 53 7 158 m m American Profile Hometown Contenl 65. Srs.' exams 66. Sr., et al. DOWN 1. Word w th we - or soft- 2. Make it big 3. Sentimental sort 4. Beauty's beloved 5. Any military recruit, these days 6. Indiana's Bayh 7. In (harmonious) 8. From square one 9. Show embarrassment 10. Streisand, in fanzines 11. Heavenly body 12. __ Aviv 13. 'ffhe Waste Land" initials ) 0 16 19 !2 !4 .S ,2 S 8 9 i I 51 i2 i5 21. Mustachioed Marx 22. Tosspot's utterance 25. Soup du __ 26. Sharer's word 27. Arthur or Benaderet 30. Suffix with mock or crock 31. Colorado ski spot 32. Baton wielder 34.Shade of blue 35. Strong alkali 36. Bunker or Nob 37. __ buco 38.  Palmas, Canary Islands 39. Invited to dinner, perhaps 40. Tongue or tail action 43. Space occupier I1 m 0 53 6 10/23/2011 44. Helpful connections 46. How Rome wasn't built? 47, Shower item? 48. Ford flops 50. Rhea's "Cheers" role 52. Farm measures 53. Catcall 54. Many NYC dwellings 55. One of Asta's masters 56. One in the clink 57. Live and breathe 58. Old _ (London theater) Champagne Opening! GOOD VIBRATIONS 278 Main St., Chester • Sat., Nov. 19th • 1 pm-4pm "Doing the Dance on Deer Creek" Pam@TrebesStudios.com 3215 Hill Crest Drive Lake Almanor, California 96137 530-596,4166 www.TrebesStudios..com Installing Audio /Video Equipment Since 1958 Rick@TrebesStudios.com } i:, F ! , r I ' " " :' 'i _ I ] l.WIT ! , I !I: ,t- o.,,,J I I ,!I l!tt! lIE !i': !!1!-_.-[I llll ]I l.f,, l[Ii lB. [[1[ 111:1 II ! l,l,.lllL [I JilllBilli imiilil